Series: Fearless #1
Author: Rebecca Bloomer (Twitter | Blog )
Released: 20th November 2012
Format: eArc
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Publisher: Odyssey Books
Date Started: 5th November 2012
Date Completed: 13th November 2012
If you’re going to colonise a planet, you’d better be willing to fight for it.
Within Anphobos, there grows a new race. The first generation of humans never to set foot on Earth. They are pale skinned, large eyed and worship no god but science. They possess technological skills and processes Earth has refused to acknowledge. Until now…
“We are Martian. Your religion isn’t ours. Our god is Mars. Our religion is science. Anything we do in the service of Mars, is good. Make no mistake, Earth girl, we are both right and good.”
Fresh off Earth, Jodi Scarfield doesn’t really care for Mars or its politics. Still, accusations of treason will get a girl’s attention...
Thoughts:
I think UnEarthed is actually the first book based on a Mars colony that I've ever read. And my impression? It was... okay. Not terrible, but not amazing. There were elements I liked and a lot of elements I was... indifferent about. It ended up just being a tolerable book which wasn't a chore to read, but I wasn't losing sleep because of either.
This feeling mainly stemmed from the average writing and my thoughts of the main character. The writing was tolerable. It was decent. But it couldn't compare to some of my favourite authors. It also wasn't very challenging to read, more suited to a younger audience than a brainy seventeen year old science nerd. A lot of the concepts introduced were intriguing, and could have been presented to me better with a higher level writing. And maybe more action-action scenes, with fast pacing and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
The main character, Jodi, was... okay. At the start of the novel I had a dislike for her character. I'm not sure why. And even though I came to like her a little more over the course of the book, I couldn't fully relate to her. Astrid, a secondary character, was my favourite. She was much easier to relate to, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that she studies the three sciences (like I did).
Another aspect I liked was how it showed political aspects and protesting. Particularly how even though it can be intended to be peaceful, having a group of volatile people in one area can go down the drown very quickly because of the actions of one/a small group who snap and resort to violence to get what they want. And then the peaceful part is completely covered up and the bad part inflated (or the entire thing completely suppressed by the media and blah blah blah. This theme/topic is another I haven't seen addressed in novels before, and I was happy to stumble across it.
All in all, UnEarthed was a tolerable book. The writing wasn't anything special, and I didn't really care for the main character, but it presented concepts and topics I hadn't seen in YA before.
Rating: 2/5
Recommended For:
Younger teenagers with an interest in sci-fi.
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